I just ordered second HJ last night.
What is your top 3 jujube varieties taste-wise?
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Sugarcane are twice to three times larger than what youâre showing in that picture and elongated. They are among the first of my jujubes to ripen and theyâre finished by mid to late August on my tree. I donât wait too long to let them ripen, they usually have a ltlle brown when I pick them and they are crispy sweet and juicier than other varieties I have. In sweetness they rank second to Honey Jar, but are larger almost 1 1/2 to twice larger. My trees are relatively young, but this is what I noticed so far.
I only have five trees that I could currently say something about, the rest are too small to really comment on. But I had a couple of fruits from both the Coco and Black Sea and they are both very promising.
Which ones do I like in order? I like them all, but when fresh and in order I like the Honey Jar then So, followed by SugarCane then Li, Lang and finally TigerTooth. TigerTooth appears to be improving this year, but the order of what I like the most when eaten fresh remains the same.
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really hard for me to choose just a top 3. There seems to be a multi-way tie⌠as there are too many!
moreover, an expectedly smaller li(and many other varieties)which ripens in late october or november here in vegas-- it is radically better-tasting than the typically plum-sized âbrebaâ li which ripened earlier in julyâ from the same tree and the same year! So there is also a time element to the experience, and a regional one as well, as many people growing theirs in other states will say that contortedâs and scâs are pretty good, and while i agree they are when harvested later in the year, they are not as good compared to many others when grown here and when harvested at the same time. So it isnât just an individual preference of the taster, but also the individual preference of the cultivar with regards to time of year and/or region it is being grown [quote=âmamuang, post:161, topic:5823â]
I just ordered second HJ last night.
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always a popular choice, as many people i have held taste-tests for will agree it is up there.
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@jujubemulberry I know you grow many different varieties so for fresh eating in combination with early production would you agree with Sas that honey jar is the best flavored or is there another early one youâd say top it.
i actually prefer a prime li over a prime hj.
li has some tart to it which makes it more interesting than hj. The huge caveat however, is that many people whoâve tasted our hjâs and liâs seem to prefer the delicate crispness and mild flavor of hj. Could be due to hj being very sweet and not having any apple flavor which make it somewhat unique.
prime liâs, on the other hand, are at least as sweet as hj, but present as dense apples with the tart reminiscent of apples .
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Last year we went to a pick your own farm and picked a bunch of Li Jujubes and stored them in the fridge. They just kept getting sweeter everyday which I thought was unusual.
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liâs are very sweet, brix wise, often reaching 30+ and cooler temps seem to have a positive effect on the flavor not just off the trees but also while on the trees, even though the brix are approximate. The fruits weâre eating now are way more flavorful than those we were eating the past 4 months.
jujus also get more fragrant in the fridge, especially when placed in ziploc bags.
sure, juju trees love the heat and are more precocious and productive here, but the cooler temps in regions with milder summers apparently have a positive effect on the flavor. So mainly the reason couldnât commit as to which is better than what.
wouldnât want to lead a bandwagon basing solely on our taste-tests here, and outright prejudice to dismiss cultivars we have never tasted grown elsewhere
what grows in vegas, taste stays in vegas haha
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thanks
My guess is you have a rootstock, not certain though so definitely give it another chance to fruit. I had a similar âLiâ from Hidden Springs I think, it had the graft union visible etc. I think their mother tree was a dud. Its too bad when that happens, they are going through all this work to propagate a rootstock.
Mamuang,
Is that little fruit taste sweet at all? Most rootstock seedlings fruits taste sour.
Tony
It tasted sweet, not as sweet as HJ but better than Shanxi Li. However, the meat was so little, I hope I did not imagine the taste 
@scottfsmith If it turns out to be a rootstock, BR will hear from me. They have already owed me the raspberry (that died) refund but I have not bothered to get the refund credit.
I think you do have the right SC. The fruit maybe small for the first go around. I that a similar situation with my first SC.
Tony
My seedling jujubes fruits where sweet.
some of ours were more sweet than sour as well. Could be new hybrids. We also have two unnamed varieties obtained from a sunday market in chinatown, with really weird-looking fruits. The vendor couldnât speak english muchâapart from telling us the price, lol
we could surmise they were grown from seedlings hybridized here in usa, or from imported juju seeds we often see in ebay
Last year I received a Norris#1. The graft never made it , but a root sucker took off, yielding and unbelievable amount of fruit. To make a long story short, the plant want replaced. I grew them side by side. The fruit looked nothing like any other fruit and was bland to say the least. Sweetness was almost absent.
It looked similar to the fruit shown above. I would examine the tree and make sure that the fruit came from above the graft.
The one thatâs loaded is from a sucker, the one with the elongated fruit is from above the graft. They both came as Norris#1.
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the top picture looks like rollingrivernurseryâs norris #1
Earlier tonight, I picked the last Honey Jar, and the last Shanxi Li from both trees. I think I waited a bit too long on the Honey Jar, as it wasnât as crisp as Iâd like. It was still much better in texture than both Shanxi Li, even though they werenât as fully ripened.
The larger of the Shanxi Li (from a newly planted ToA tree) was better than the one from the Shanxi Li graft on the So. Iâm thinking that part of it may be that the graft gets a bit less sun than the new planting, which is as full as I can get it anywhere in the yard.
Of all this fruit, I actually liked the So the best, due to the juicy crunch. It had the lowest brix, but really, 23-24 isnât bad brix for any fruit. The 32 brix Shanxi Li didnât taste that much sweeterâŚ
One other interesting note- the larger Shanxi Li had a seed in the middle, but no pit. I think this is the first time Iâve seen this with my fruit. But, I did notice something like this with some that Roger Meyers sent a couple years ago.
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Bob,
Thanks for your input. I ate my last Shanxi Li last night. I donât think I like it that much. The texture was more spongy than crispy/crunchy. It is not very sweet. The only positive is the size. It is big comparing to many other jujubes.
From what you decribed, I will look into So. I like juicy crunch in jujubes.
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you seem like you have two different kinds of shanxi li.
while we only have one type of shanxi(the bigger round ones), many of ours also have identity crisesânamely changâs, the russians, and most especially the rtâs(not just among themselves but also with other named cultivars).
speaking of which, just saw burntridge add the never-before shanxi to their roster. They also have hj and chico like clockwork
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